Returning to Fantasy
by Dreamer200
Summary: 9 years after the adventures of four friends: Dorothy Gale, Wendy Darling, Alice Liddell, and Susan Pevensie, they are all lively teens who are on the verge of marriage. They all must cope with the impact their childhood worlds had on their normal lifestyle. Follow their stories as they journey once more to what they thought was only a dream. Rated T to be safe [On Hiatus; See Bio]
1. I: A Daughter of Eve

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, or Alice in Wonderland. **

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Susan's family was dead. It was the worst news she could possibly hear on a perfectly good Saturday afternoon. They had been killed in a train crash. She'd shed all the tears she had and still was crying. For Lucy, who was growing up to be such a pretty young woman. For Edmund, who'd wanted for years to fight in the army. For Peter, who was always the leader of the four of them and yearned to become something more. All gone forever. Never again to see the light of day. That night, Susan wept softly onto her pillow, softy murmuring to herself, "It's all just a dream. When I wake up, everything will be fine.", but deep down, she knew that it was all too vivid to be out of her mind. It was no dream.

She awoke to bright sunlight. It stirred a memory at the back of her head that she'd long forgotten about. But it was only the midday sun. She'd slept in far past the usual time. She stumbled out of her bed, only to remember the tragic news from the previous day. Susan closed her eyes and imagined her siblings alive again. There was no point to it, though. She could live in her fantasies, but they would never become reality. Susan dressed herself and walked downstairs to find something to eat. She found Alice already sitting at the table, reading a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. When Alice was child, she was thought to be troubled and so was "helped" by a man named Charles Dodgson who she told her supposed adventure to Wonderland to. He wrote a book about it and had it published. Alice had been reading it repeatedly ever since she could read, trying to recall the world she practically lived in as a girl.

Alice looked up and saw Susan. She stood up quickly and ran to hug her tightly. "I'm so, so sorry." she whispered in her friend's ear. Susan closed her eyes and positioned her head on Alice's shoulder. What did she ever do to deserve this? Why was this happening to her, of all people? Alice stepped away, and then began to prepare some bacon. She set it down in front of Susan who stared blankly into the air with a faraway look in her eyes. It took a few minutes for the girl to realize the presence of food in front of her. Even then, she did not eat. How was it that her life could seem so happy at times, but it would always be so short-lived? Why, just two days prior, Susan had received a marriage proposal from her beloved that she accepted, naturally. She had planned to tell her siblings the very next day. But it was too late.

People came and went. Everyone expressed their sympathies. Susan hardly payed attention to any of them, however she nodded politely as if she was listening. Nothing could bring them back. No matter how many "You have my sincerest apologies" or "My sympathies" were said, no matter how much people tried to help her get over it, one thing always remained true. They. Were. Never. Coming. Back.

Susan locked herself in her room for days. She never came out. Once, Alice attempted to bring a plate of food up to her friend. She raised a hand to knock on the door, but was interrupted when she heard a noise coming from the other side of the door. Loud sobbing and the wail of a girl with a broken heart. She opened the door to find Susan curled up in a ball on the wooden floor, her small body shaking with the violence of her tears. Alice quickly set down the plate and rushed to soothe the girl. She was only pushed away. It was no use.

Slowly, Susan began to change. Her once neatly-kept dark brown locks became an unruly and tangled mess. Her storm-gray eyes became wild with hysteria. Her fiancee broke off the engagement. There was no trace left of the girl he once fell in love with. She talked to herself and to the air, thinking it was Lucy, or Peter, or Edmund. Alice took care of her, always trying to bring her back to reality. Susan was known around the town as the Girl Who Went Insane Over the Death of Her Siblings.

There was a time when Susan was able to unlock the trunk of her childhood. It held the toys and books that had kept her and her siblings occupied for so long. She dug through it, looking for something. The only thing that would satisfy her. She had never wanted to remember it, but now it was the only thing she did want to remember. At last, she pulled out a bronze bow and quiver of arrows. The curve of the bow, the feel of the weight on her back, all so familiar to her. Alice entered the room to find Susan sitting in the midst of old toys and books, stroking a bow that obviously was a part of her childhood. A childhood that Alice knew little about.

She moved things out of the way and crouched down next to the girl. Susan payed no attention to her and seemed mesmerized by the weapon. Alice proceeded to take it from her, but she yanked it away, like a stubborn child.

"Susan," her friend said quietly but forcefully. "Where did you get this?"

At that, Susan turned her head sharply to look at her, the crazed look in her once-calm eyes somewhat disturbing.

She replied in only a whisper, "Narnia."


	2. II: Windows

The window was closed. For so long it had been open, as if in waiting. Waiting, always waiting. Wendy was a stupid, immature girl then, to think he would come back for her. It was no fairy-tale, where she would fly off with him. To think that had only been 9 years ago. She was no longer a silly 12 year old girl. She was engaged to be married. Wendy lay out her wedding dress, a thing of the finest silk, bought by her future husband, a well-to-do gentleman not much older than herself. Her mother had suggested that she pack for her honeymoon, and pack she did, however the girl's gaze kept returning to the window. The curtains hung there, stiff and immobile, so unlike when they continuously billowed with the breeze. An idea came to her, but she pushed it aside. She was almost a woman and had to forget about such childish things. There was no place in society for a woman who was married to a lord and still believed in figures of fantasy like Peter Pan.

The very thought of him was bittersweet. How Wendy longed to see him again, although he had lied to her. He told her he'd come back for her, when instead he'd only raised her hopes and they were brutally crushed at the realization of the truth. He had forgotten about her and had abandoned her. Wendy was forced to face the harsh reality alone. Her brothers John and Michael had easily let go of the adventures in Neverland, thinking of them as just children's games and that it was all just a dream. Wendy was old enough when Peter first came to remember it all.

A soft tapping noise came from the window. She jumped at the sound. Silence. Suddenly the window flew open and the curtains blew inward from the wind. The candles in the room went out, allowing the moon as the only light source. Slowly, a boy of about 13 poked his head into the room, a head of light brown curls and mischievous green eyes.

"Wendy?" he whispered loudly. "Wendy?"

So he hadn't changed. Not even by a second.

"Peter, you've been gone for so long." Wendy murmured. The boy turned his head to where she stood. He couldn't see her too well in the shadows.

"Wendy? Is that you?" he asked.

Cautiously, the girl stepped forward into the moonlight. Peter's eyes widened at her appearance. "Wendy, what happened to you?" he said in a scared tone, backing up towards the wall.

"I grew up, Peter. I was forced to. You broke your promise to me. You never came. You may have thought it was only a few hours, maybe even a day. For me, it was 9 years. 9 years alone, waiting for the boy who never came. Waiting to go back to the world everyone kept telling me was a dream." replied Wendy. Peter crept forward and reached to touch her arm comfortingly, but she pulled away.

"Don't touch me." she hissed, tears threatening to spill. She wouldn't cry in front of him. She wouldn't. Instead, Wendy walked to her wedding dress upon her old bed.

"What is that?" questioned Peter, following her, but keeping a safe distance. Wendy flashed a look of both anger and sorrow at him.

"I'm getting married. I'm no longer a child. I have a life planned out for me to live. You and Neverland aren't a part of it."

His eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean? I'm here now."

"But you weren't there when I needed you most!" the girl cried out, changing from her usual, composed self. She sighed shakily. "Just go, Peter." she finally whispered.

He looked at her with a sadness. What had he done? A silence passed between them that seemed to last for an eternity. The boy then tuned and approached the window from which he had come. He took one last look at her.

"Goodbye, Wendy." he said quietly as he disappeared into the night.


End file.
